Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tip, Vol. 7, No. 10, March 2004

I just put up an article by publicity guru Steven Van Yoder, on reasons to publish a book. It's a very good article, with all sorts of lucrative outcomes that have vastly expanded his business. You can read it (preceded by a version of this tip) at http://www.frugalmarketing.com/dtb/write-a-book.shtml. According to Steven, a book credential, properly leveraged, can mean many thousands of dollars in your pocket.

Steven provides an excellent list of possible benefits--but he needs a reality test. Is it *possible* to achieve these results? Absolutely; I've personally experienced most of them. But is it *likely?* Not for 95% of book authors. About 150,000 books are published each year in the United States alone. There are probably only a few thousand who are experiencing the kind of success Steven describes.

How can you be one of the few?
* Identify a strong need to solve a problem or better a common condition
* Write the best possible book on the subject: clear, useful, and error-free
* Either find a traditional publisher (which gives you significantly more credibility, but is extremely difficult to achieve) or learn how to be a fabulous self-publisher (time-consuming, but achievable and profitable)
* Create (or hire out) eye-catching cover and interior designs, a well-engineered, easy-to-find website, and superb marketing materials
* Promote, promote, promote, and promote some more

Steven has done all this. He and his staff work very hard at promoting Get Slightly Famous. His success is not accidental.

As a book publishing and marketing consultant, I walk clients through every step of the process, from deciding whether to approach publishers or do it yourself to making the contacts for marketing, distribution, and so forth. I see, over and over again, that the people who take the time and trouble to follow the five points above are the ones who succeed.

Thank you reading this back issue of Shel Horowitz's Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips, published every month since May, 1997; please click here to view the complete archives, grouped by subject. Shel is an internationally known copywriter and marketing consultant, author of Grassroots Marketing Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First and several other books, and creator of the Frugal Marketing web site. Please click here to contact Shel.